Self:
Another Open Letter to R/WW
September 29, 2008 by Kyle BradyTags: Open Letter, R/WW, The Internet, Web 2.0, Web Startups
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics
Dear Read/WriteWeb,
I was poking around, and I came across Tim O'Reilly's response to the R/WW post about Google being "spread too thin", and in one of the first comments beneath it, he states that the latest batch of writers aren't up to par.
I've been a fan of R/WW for awhile, and have voiced my opinions about you guys going the echo-chamber direction, and I applaud you for avoiding that disaster over the last few months, remaking yourself into something else entirely.
But what, exactly, is the direction you're going?
You continue to cover startups that have little to no value (to anyone)... mashups of mashups, aggregators of aggregators, etc. And then you have posts like the "Web 2.0 Grizzled Entreprenuers" (or whatever it's called) that make absolutely no sense... you can't be in the Web 2.0 world and be anything but happy with sunshine breath, and "riding the economy" is really not important, or even relevant, to these same people. The only thing that matters is where their money comes from, and most of them have enough to go for at least a year, thanks to the investors I've previously ridden so harshly for their pack-mentality.
Web 2.0 is dying, and it seems that only a few people are seeing it. Not that it was ever truly "alive", but the recent economic events have made some realize the insanity of what was/is going on. And this means that your content will change. Again.
So, my suggestion to you is twofold:
- Reign in your writers. Just because they have access to a high profile blog doesn't mean they should go writing whatever comes to mind. Even I don't do that, and I barely have an audience. The image and brand of RW/W is going to be upheld or destroyed on an individual post basis, and, as O'Reilly proved, one false step in the wrong direction can make a bigger impact than having many great posts.
- Focus on important things. At this point, I'm not sure anyone cares (least of all me) about "MuxTape dying, but it's going to be revived, and, oh, by the way here's a few writeups about other places that are "the MuxTape for YouTube!"." Focus on the people who are actually doing difficult things. Things that matter. Ted Dziuba may be nasty and sarcastic, but he has the right idea. Not to mention actually doing something interesting and, God forbid, programmatically difficult.
This is important to you, now more than ever. Not only because of the changing tides, but also because you have an audience larger than before.
Who does not know how great you used to be.
Disclosure: I'll be publicly posting this on my blog. A reader manifesto is still a manifesto.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
